Mangia Pasta!

After my final last Saturday I baby sat for one of the professors in my graduate group. He and his wife just had their first baby back in November. His name is Teo (as in “tay-o”) and is very cute. They walk past our house a lot with Teo in the stroller and sometimes stop to chat. A few weeks ago while Dave and my dad were busy with the stump removal, they walked past and we all stopped working to admire the darling baby. I told them that I’d love to watch him sometime if they ever wanted to have some couple-time together. They admitted that they hadn’t left him with a sitter yet because they weren’t “emotionally ready.” My dad commented that they’d better get on it and get the baby used to be watched by someone other than his immediate family, otherwise they’ll risk freaking him out the first time he’s alone with a new person. My dad said that they don’t want to make the mistake of waiting until the HAVE to leave him with a sitter when he’s older because he won’t be used to it. Funny enough, I got an email from Teo’s mom only a few days later asking if I could watch him while they went out for their wedding anniversary celebration.

Watching Teo went great; he slept heavily after I walked him around the house and talked to him about all the stuff he was seeing. When his parents returned they took him out of my arms instantly—they were so relieved to be back home with him! It was cute and I’m sure they’ll laugh about their anxiety at being away from him in a few months when he’s crawling all over the place, getting into everything, making messes, and still learning to use his “inside voice.”

By the time I walked home from their house Dave was starving. I had intended to make a lasagna but didn’t have the ricotta thawed and I’d run out of noodles. I improvised and made spaghetti and meatballs instead. How fun! I hadn’t had this dish since I was a child. Be honest, when you think of “spaghetti and meatballs” don’t you immediately think of 1980’s children’s menus at restaurants? I know I do.

It sure was yummy! I used my Daddy’s marinara sauce, augmented with sautéed onions, a can of mushrooms, a healthy glug of red wine, and a pint of home-canned tomatoes. The ground beef was mixed with minced beaten egg, red onion, garlic powder, and a heaping ½ cup of grated pecorino romano cheese. I fried the balls in oil just until the brown on two sides then let them simmer in the sauce for 20 minutes to cook through. They're like little floating meatloaves!

On Saturday afternoon I made another pasta dish (in your face Mr. Atkins!) for lunch: beet greens wilted in the fat rendered from browned slices of kielbasa sausage, tomatoes, all tossed with a 1/2 pound of pasta. The flavor of the beet greens went perfectly with the sausage. This dish was great because the pasta wasn't the star of the show--the greens were. Dave and I decided that next time I ought to double the amount of greens. I used about a pound but they cook down so much that we really needed more. We ate it outside n the "BBQ" yard where we will (someday) have a proper patio so we don't have to place our table on hard dirt.

As we soaked up the sunshine Dave snuggled with the dogs, one at a time, right there in his lawn chair. (For the record, my Davie is going to be the BEST daddy ever when we actually have human-children. He's such a nurturing guy.) You can tell from Ruby’s expression that she’d prefer to get down and snuggle on the floor (first picture). Potatoes, on the other hand, was completely okay being in his daddy’s lap (second picture); he actually dozed off for a bit!